I am pleased to finally be able to announce that I will be moving my blogging efforts. Though the Key of Reason will still be somewhat active, most of my discipline-specific blogging will now be the Cyber Studies blog, where I have recently been appointed Fellow.
Check in there as we move into our new digs!
1) Facebook - another layout change (which sucks, but that’s another tumblr-post) — one thing I’ve noticed as I’ve been hunting around trying to find the features I used to easily use is the “Reconnect with friend” ad at the top right of the main page.
Are Facebook trying to enforce connection? Do they honestly expect that people want to maintain the same level of interaction with every person they’re ‘friended’ on Facebook? Facebook ‘Stalking’ is a big part of the FB experience for a lot of people, so why this sudden emphasis on explicit social interactivity?
2) Twitter lists. Now, this is something I can personally see I’ll have a lot of use for. However, I do wonder if the introduction of lists suddenly invokes an expectation of reciprocity in the exchange (i.e.: I listed you as a follower of a particular merit, you are now expected to do the same). Maybe this is one reason behind the anecdata coming up lately about lists causing mass defriendings…
Wondering if it would be possible to use a group mindmap tool like Prezi to map the info pouring out in realtime of the IR10 conference? It might be able to use things like time of posting, usernames, even keywords to map tweets to a framework of the conference schedule. Sources like flickr and blogs mind need a little more metadata or manual entry into the approriate slot.
Thoughts?
Russian SNS, now Matt showing us the path to the statistical darkside.
CALL FOR PAPERS (Please direct all inquires to the website/email links below)
IFIP 9.5 WG Virtuality & Society http://www.ifip95wg.org are pleased to announce our next gathering as a part of IFIP’s 50th Anniversary conference:
WORLD COMPUTER CONGRESS 2010
20-23 September 2010
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Brisbane, Australia
http://www.wcc2010.org/
CALL FOR PAPERS
===============
9th Human Choice and Computers (IFIP-TC9-HCC9) Track 2:
Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping
———————————————————-
Following on the recent (April 2009) International Working Conference of IFIP 9.5 Working Group on Virtuality and Society, “Images of Virtuality,” at Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, this conference will be a track of the IFIP Technical Committee 9th Human Choice and Computers (HCC9) stream of the IFIP World Computer Congress, in Brisbane, Australia, September 2010 http://www.wcc2010.org/ .
This track will focus on the feedback loops between virtual technologies and the social groups who use them, how each shape the other and are in turn shaped by them. Social shaping, the sociology of technology, science studies and other approaches of cultural studies to the phenomenon of the information society, driven by such classics as those of Bijker and Law and Mackenzie and Wajcman from the 1990s, are arguably now ready for a fresh look, in the context of virtual environments and global social networking and gaming communities.
The intervening years have additionally seen an explosion of digital and media arts interpretations, and explorations of the impact of virtual technologies upon society, and the social use of such technologies upon their design, and the entrepreneurial trajectories of their appearance in the global market.
Virtual technologies, crucially, have moved very decisively from the workplace - whether corporate or home office - and into the domestic sphere, into our living rooms, playrooms, our kitchens, and our bedrooms. Here the relationship between virtual technologies and society, and the mutual shaping processes each undergo, are ripe for fresh study, insight, and exploration. The Virtuality and Society Working Group sub-stream of the Human Choice and Computers stream of the World Computer Congress therefore invites research and work-in-progress papers that address the choices faced by an information society permeated by ubiquitous virtual technologies.
Relevant topics and themes include, but are not limited to:
Additional information on the work of IFIP 9.5 WG is available at
http://www.ifip95wg.org
Program Committee
==================
Programme Chair:
David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK.
Programme Co-chairs:
Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Deutschland, and Claus Pias, University of Vienna,
Austria Chrisanthi Avgerou, Management Information Systems and Innovation,
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Oliver Burmeister, University of Wollongong, Australia
Simran Grewal, University of Bath, UK
Niki Panteli, School of Management, University of Bath, UK.
Erika Pearson, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand
Angeliki Poulymenakou, Management Science & Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Steve Sawyer, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, USA
Lin Yan, Greenwich University, UK
Instructions for paper submission
=================================
Papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published
or are simultaneously submitted to a journal or another conference with
proceedings. Papers must be written in English; they should be at most 1O-12
pages in total, including bibliography and well-marked appendices. Papers
should be intelligible without appendices, if any.
Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and published in the
IFIP Series by Springer. Submitted and accepted papers must follow the
publisher’s guidelines for the IFIP Series (www.springer.com/series/6102),
Author templates, Manuscript preparation in Word). At least one author of
each accepted paper must register to the conference and present the paper.
All papers must be submitted in electronic form through the web via
http://www.wcc2010.org by the deadline indicated below, indicating for which
HCC9-track they apply. Papers submitted after this deadline will be
discarded without review.
Important dates
===============
Intention to submit: Immediately
Submission of papers: January 31, 2010
Notification to authors: April 20, 2010
Camera-ready copies: May 15, 2010
Intention to submit and submission must be sent also to the two HCC9 IPC
Chairs, and according to your track choice to the tracks chairs:
Jacques Berleur, Namur University, Belgium: jberleur@info.fundp.ac.be
Magda Hercheui, Westminster Business School and London School of Economics, United Kingdom m.hercheui@googlemail.com
Track 2: Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK, d.g.kreps@salford.ac.uk
Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Deutschland., warnke@leuphana.de,
Claus Pias, University of Vienna, Austria
Pear analytics undertook research to see what people tweeted about and to attempt to classify Twitter based discussions. (c/o Mashable)
I haven’t read the full whitepaper yet, but this quote jumped off the page at me from the overview on the mainpage:
Note that we did not collect any tweets during the Michael Jackson news, in order not to skew the results.
I have to admit, I do wonder if that gap is where the interesting stuff is: in my experience, Twitter burbles away in the background, full of chatter and the slow-burn of social ties strengthening. But when something BIG happens (whether it be a terrorist attack or a popstar popping his clogs), Twitter swings into action as an unfiltered tsunami of information (and misinformation), ideas, opinions and interpretation.
Off to read the full paper now — we’ll see what other ideas occur.
The two massive posts preceeding are the reason for the long radio silence on this blog. IRGO unConference. PRism special issue. Check ‘em out.
Call for Papers: Online social networks, communication practice, and public relations
The social networking emerging online is now seen as one of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 and beyond. From virtual worlds to microblogging, individuals and groups are forming diverse and sometimes apparently novel ways of building and maintaining social bonds. These mediated exchanges between individuals and groups who may never physically meet challenge our current understandings of friendship, communication, and belonging.
For communication and public relations scholars and practitioners, such interactions pose a number of significant questions. How do researchers explore the nebulous social connections people forge in online spaces? How do we re-evaluate what it means to be an individual and part of a group in this context? Do these new channels of communication change the way we present ourselves and our ideas?
This special 2010 edition of PRism online public relations and communication journal (http://praxis.massey.ac.nz/prism_on-line_journ.html) seeks papers which discuss and explore ways in which to approach, study, and account for the diversity of online social experience, particularly in regard to communication practice and issues of public relations. Possible topics include:
* methodological frameworks for studying online social behaviours
* theory building (normative or critical) regarding the social web as part of communications or public relations practice
* ways of conceptualizing the online self and society, such as; performance, identity, network theory, and their implications for organisational communication and public relations
* issues and ethics in online data collection on social networking sites
* case studies exploring the impact of multimodal (online/offline) social ties in research
* opinion pieces on using social networks in public relations
* critically informed speculation on the future of communication practice in social media (beyond ‘Web3’)
* multimedia submissions on a related topic
Papers are welcome from all disciplinary areas. Full papers will be due by Friday 5th of February, 2010 and will be peer reviewed. Academic papers should be 5,000 words and practitioner papers between 2,500-3,000 words maximum. Style should follow house guidelines:http://praxis.massey.ac.nz/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/Prism_House_Style.pdf See also the PRism submission guidelines at:http://praxis.massey.ac.nz/sub_guide.html
Enquiries are welcome and should be directed to Erika Pearson (erika.pearson@otago.ac.nz).
Erika Pearson
Department of Media, Film and Communication
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054
New Zealand
Ph: 64 3 479 8680
Fax: 64 3 479 3932
IRGO is pleased to be hosting the inaugural IRGO unConference on the 23 and 24th of November 2009 at the Centre for Innovation, University of Otago, Dunedin.
The topic of the unConference is “New Zealand’s Digital Futures.” Our opening address will be by Professor Greg Hearn, Director of the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT. Our closing speaker will be announced shortly.
The unConference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners from around the region to discuss the future of the internet from multiple perspectives. In particular, the conference will focus around three key questions. Firstly, what might be possible for the future internet of the region? Secondly, what will citizens want from the internet in the future (two, five, ten years ahead)? And thirdly, what potential internet problems or issues will we have to navigate in the immediate future?
As this is an unConference, the direction of the discussion is up to you. We are using a submission system where people can suggest topics for panels, nominate panelists, and even vote topics up or down. The final list of topics will be decided by popular vote — and you do not need to be a registered attendee to vote! We will be making conference artifacts available online, so anyone interested can nominate and vote on topics.
Finally, thanks to University of Otago, registration is FREE. However, places are limited, so please register ASAP to confirm your place.
For general information on the conference: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/glance.html
To connect to the submissions system: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/submissions.html
For registration: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/registration.html
Please feel free to forward to any interested colleagues. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the website or via email: irgo@otago.ac.nz
We look forward to seeing you in November
Anyone want to help Andrew Get To Milwaukee? Come on, we need him for our panel! Help!
The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) run an annual Academic conference where the eminent (e.g., Barry Wellman, Steve Jones, danah boyd, Nancy Baym, …) and the not-yet eminent meet to discuss the latest in cutting edge social/technical internet-facing research.
The conference this year (2009) is called IR10.0 with the overarching theme “Internet: Critical”. What makes this conference particularly special (other than it being in its 10th year, about the internet, located in Milwaukee and that its all set for lots of Twitter research discussion) is that - I had a paper accepted!
When I say paper, I submitted as part of a panel with Erika Pearson (instigator), danah boyd, and Stephanie Tuszynski with the collective (and obviously worthy) topic: “Friends and Followers: Renegotiating Friendship Online”. You can see this panel nestled amongst the other fascinating internet research topics in the draft programme that’s just been released.
However, there is a catch …
Unfortunately it’s a big one: I can’t get money from my Department to send me to this conference. This is despite the acceptance and the certainly that these researchers are the people I need to talk to, interact with and listen to, in order to develop further as a researcher.
So, I put it to you (with some desperation and little expectation): How can I get to Milwaukee in October to attend IR10 to present with my co-panelists?
